For decades, investors, startups and a broad host of established players have viewed healthcare as ripe for innovation. However, the industry has been challenged by the momentum of the status quo – the scale, complexity, volume and ingrained practices that all need to change to wring out some much-needed efficiency.
As we were taught in physics class, the more momentum something has, the more...
A recent report testing the security capabilities of several mobile health apps highlighted "systemic" shortcomings and vulnerabilities that could lead to the exposure of users' sensitive health and identity information.
Conducted by cybersecurity marketing firm Knight Ink and sponsored by mobile app API security company Approov, the investigation reverse-engineered 30 mobile health apps using an...
A 2020 Pharmaceutical Threat Report by mobile cybersecurity specialists, Lookout, has examined the challenges healthcare providers are facing.
They have revealed company and employee-owned endpoint devices are providing the gateway for cybercriminals to exploit these services through mobile phishing, application threats, and network-based attacks.
WHY IT MATTERS
Collated from Lookouts customer...
Bahrain and Kuwait are using their COVID-19 contact tracing apps as mass surveillance tools, it has emerged. According to a new report released by Amnesty International, the two Gulf states, along with Norway, have released “some of the most invasive COVID-19 contact tracing apps around the world, putting the privacy and security of hundreds of thousands of people at risk.”
In its investigation,...
London-based digital firm Babylon Health has admitted that a data breach occurred that allowed a patient to access recordings of another patient’s consultation via the GP at Hand app.
The app, which has more than 2.3 million UK users, allows members to book medical appointments, access a triage chatbot and have consultations with NHS doctors via smartphone video call.
A Babylon spokesperson says...
Scores of startups, health systems and even governments have scrambled to address COVID-19 by creating new digital tools for patients. However, these tools may have some gaps when it comes to securing users' privacy data, according to a report by newly formed group the International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC).
The organization, which is made up of lawyers, technologists and privacy...
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, consumers are turning to ecommerce as a way to purchase everything from groceries to prescription medications. Now so-called “shadow pharmacies” are seeking to take advantage of pandemic fears and spending by claiming to sell unconfirmed coronavirus treatments without a prescription, according to a Babel Street report.
“As consumers make the shift to online...
A large portion of COVID-19 apps available in the Google Play Store ask users for advanced access permissions, but very few indicate to users that collected data will be made anonymous and secured, according to an analysis of 50 such apps published recently in Nature Medicine.
The investigation – conducted by two researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Illinois...
